The 30 Greatest Months in Rap History

Perhaps no type of music makes quite as much of a fuss about the calendar as hip-hop. Diddy once declared that he'd be in a position of power "from now 'til the year 3000." Jay-Z has rapped about how he held rap fans down for "six summers." It's a very time conscious genre, with artists who are incredibly self-aware about the value of their work at the time of its release, as well as its legacy for the future.

The only thing: Rap's obsession with the correlation between time and accomplishments tends to skew towards years—and any rap nerd can list off incredible years in hip-hop: 1988, 1994, 2000. We decided to take a closer a look, and examine what happened during particular months. You know that month when both Illmatic and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik dropped (hint: It was this month, 19 years ago)? It's time to pit moments like that against other landmark spans of time in hip-hop, and find out where the cards fall.

Our current month, April 2013, has been a hell of a ride. Kid Cudi and Tyler, the Creator dropped albums. Drake hopped on the radio and dissed Chris Brown. Coachella took over our Instagram feeds for two weekends. Kanye West flew a flock of artists to Paris to work on music. The news cycle never took a break. If there's any time to talk about the impact of an awesome month, it's now.